Milky Way Simply Caramel

The Mars family of candy bars, as far as I’m concerned, is all about nougat. They put it in all their legacy bars: 3 Musketeers, Mars (now Snickers Almond), Snickers and Milky Way. For a very short period of time they actually made a plain old caramel and chocolate bar, it was called Marathon.

Back in 2007 or 2008 there was a brief limited edition in miniature form of the Milky Way bar with just the caramel. Then it became a regular item in 2008 in Canada as Mars Caramel (and nut free to boot). It’s taken a while for it to return to the United States, but now it’s available in full bar form here, too (though this one is made in the USA and doesn’t have the no nuts seal, it actually doesn’t list peanuts as a possible allergen ... just egg and of course soy and milk which are in the ingredients.)

The Milky Way Caramel bar fills a hole in the American candy bar grid of confectionery possibilities. It’s a firm caramel covered in milk chocolate. It is unlike the Cadbury Caramello which is a flowing caramel covered in milk chocolate or the Rolo which is small pieces filled with a flowing caramel.

It’s attractive, as are most Mars candy products. The block is smaller than the standard Milky Way bar. It’s only 1.91 ounces instead of 2.05 and not quite as high (as there’s no fluffy nougat in there).

The milk chocolate is thick and doesn’t flake off. The caramel is a milky amber color and has an excellent glossy pull to it. The texture of the caramel is silky smooth and though it’s dense it’s not quite chewy. The scent of the whole bar is a bit like a toasted sugared cereal, not much chocolate punch but plenty of buttery notes.

The caramel has flavor, but that’s just it, it tastes like “flavor” not an authentic “boiled until it caramelizes” sugar flavor.

The whole thing is sweet and of course it’s a lot of caramel to eat, though certainly not as cloying as Caramello. I’ve had a couple of these bars (the broken one pictured above I got at the NACS convention in October and the package was from this weekend) and I simply cannot finish one in a single sitting. I like the proportion of chocolate to caramel and the texture is distinctive. There’s an overriding milk flavor to the whole thing, which I liked. But I prefer my chocolate to be darker and my caramel chewier (it probably doesn’t help that I spent the weekend eating See’s Scotchmallows.). But my preferences aside, it’s well done: real chocolate, no artificial colors and great textures.

UPDATE: Oh, Chocolate Bars is a spammer! Arrived at Candy Blog via a search for Chocolate Blog ... and clicking through other blogs on that list, wouldn’t you know there were lots of “not quite on target” comments that left a link to a chocolate webstore. A chocolate webstore that is now banned from Candy Blog. Good job Chocolate Bars! you must work for a rival chocolate website because no one who runs a legitimate company would do something so stupid, would they?

I’m sorry to the rest of the readers ... I’m pretty fed up with spammers & SEO link people taking advantage of blogs & forums. (And of course you’re their targets, and I don’t wish you to be caught in the middle of this either.)

I tried one of these bars on a whim and thought it was just scrum-diddly-umptious. The fact that I ended up eating a half of the bar on one day and the other half the next was actually a bonus, as opposed to the view of too-sweet or too-rich to eat in one sitting. HOWEVER, since that first one, they seemed to have disappeared from the area. I’ve tried 5 different stores now and no luck. Doesn’t that figure?

i always ate a Milky Way bar by eating the nougat first and saving the caramel and chocolate for last. The best for last! So, I thought I died and went to Heaven when I bought this new bar. It’s the Top of the Muffin! And, what’s wrong with you folks that can’t finish a bar in one day? Are you kidding me??? I could eat 10 in one day!

I saw a whole box of these when I went to Sam’s Club the other day. I was trying to be good so I didn’t get it :( I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
I remember as a child I’d always eat the caramel layer of the Milky Way bar. So this bar is just perfect for me! I know I’m heading straight for these on my next visit to Sam’s!

This bar confirms what I’ve long suspected: I’m a choco-caramel-holic. And not only can I eat one of these in one sitting, I went to the market yesterday SPECIFICALLY to pick up this bar, and bought THREE. Here I am the next day downing one at 11:15 in the morning. I think that pretty much says it all…

This is one of my favorite candies right now. I LOVE the REAL chocolate that IS MARS. I could not see this as a mocklate candy, but if Nestle or Hershey were to make something like this, it would be real chocolate at first, but then quietly they would sneak a redo with mocklate.

The thickness of the chocolate is amazing, Mars has good chocolate and they are not scared to give you a nice thick piece of chocolate. The caramel is very good, not excellent, but close to it. I would like the caramel to be slightly firmer, and a little more chewy, but the combination of the flavor of the chocolate and caramel is wonderful.

Earlier this week I sent emails to Mars, Nestle and Hershey, to Mars and applaud them using real chocolate and Hershey and Nestle I lambasted that some of their candies do not use real chocolate, I got a humorous response from Hershey, and nothing from Nestle. The only thing I begged Mars to do is come back out with the Marathon bar!!!

as the rest of these people please bring back the mini caramel chocolate bars!!!!!!!!!!!! the regular size bar is not the same at all! I never go into any store that I don’t check the candy isle for the milky way mini caramel chocolate candy wrapped in gold foil! I have my husband and all my friends looking, please bring them back!!!!!!!!!

These are good, but how is this branded as a “Milky Way?” If there is no nougat, isn’t it something completely different that what the Milky Way name represents??? I am not the only person appalled by the name attached for this.

I am in love with the caramel milky way bars that are out for Halloween. The problem is that I cannot locate them. I bought them in a Karn’s grocery store in the area and they no longer have them—so much for Halloween (10-12-13). I have visited other grocery stores to no avail.

As a long-time big fan of the original Milky Way, I was delighted when they came out with the Milky Way Dark version. Then, later, I found Simply Caramel and have been supporting their presence by buying the mini-bars whenever I can (cleaning out store shelves on occasion). I’ve been anticipating seeing a dark chocolate version of Simply Caramel, but have not yet.

I just discovered that Hershey’s has filled this gap nicely with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Caramels. Mars: your move.

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